To the editor:

Global warming is starting to change the world we live in, and recent outbreaks of tornadoes in winter, instead of spring, is adding more proof to the position of most climate scientists today that are telling us that as the world’s atmosphere warms, severe weather events will only continue to become stronger and more frequent.

Some states have already begun showing leadership by acting to reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks. But the biggest step we can take to curb global warming pollution is to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use to generate electricity.

Today, Kansas only gets roughly 1 percent of its energy from clean energy sources.

We should require the Kansas Legislature to establish a Clean Energy Standard, requiring that utilities generate at least 25 percent of our electric power from clean energy sources by 2025, and to support smaller-scale renewable energy projects drawing on biomass and/or wind in community-sized projects. Twenty states have established clean energy standards, and 25 percent would be one of the strongest standards in the entire country.

Generating 25 percent of our electricity from clean renewable energy sources is a step Kansas can take to do our share to curb global warming.

We could and should prove that Kansas is as big as we think it is.

Les Blevins, Lawrence